Overall, 39% say they approve of how Trump is handling his job as president, while 56% say they disapprove and 6% do not offer a view. Job ratings for Trump are more negative than for other recent presidents at similar points in their first terms.

Nor is it a case of indifference either…

An overwhelming share of the public (94%) offers a job rating for Trump; just 6% say they don’t know whether they approve or disapprove of him. By contrast, about two-in-ten or more declined to offer an early view of prior presidents dating back to Reagan in 1981.

And:

Among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, 84% say they approve of the job Trump is doing. This is in line with early levels of support seen among members of the president’s own party in recent administrations. However, just 8% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents say they approve of the job Trump is doing. This is by far the lowest early approval rating among members of the party not in control of the White House over the last six administrations. Early presidential approval among out-party members has been no lower than 30% in prior administrations dating to Reagan.

I can’t help but wonder. How is he going to claw back support from those groups in the future? I find it near inconceivable that someone who didn’t vote for him in 2016 is going to be convinced in 2020. And the sheer leaden weight of those poll numbers referenced above suggest not just a President who has a particular knack to polarise US citizens but one whose support base is actually much much narrower than might be expected. Note the last in the following:

Trump’s image is much more negative across a range of other characteristics. Majorities say that Trump is not even tempered (68%), is not a good communicator (63%), is not trustworthy (59%), is not well-informed (57%) and does not care about “people like me” (56%).

No surprise I suppose that he is trying to pull away support from the press. But even then… so many of his woes appear self-inflicted. This may not impact with the core base support but one has to imagine that over time it may do so with the margins. The key of course will be none-delivery. Healthcare alone should be a most interesting case.

What do others think?

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I was in touch with a friend who lives in the US. Sadly her son has become seriously ill. She has him covered with her Obamacare insurance, but it ceases when he turns 26 years of age next April. Meanwhile the bill for treatment is $2,300 per night and her insurance covers a lot of it – not all. It’s only a matter of time for the Trump administration to pull this insurance cover completely or limit payments severely. Surely trouble beckons when reality and its sorrows register, especially for those Republican senators and governors who will face many disgruntled voters.

“Trump is not very popular, but he’s also no more unpopular than Barack Obama was for much of his presidency. If his numbers hold where they they are right now — especially among registered voters — Republicans would probably hold their own in 2018, and 2020 would be another highly competitive election.”https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-polls-differ-on-trumps-popularity/

But Trump isn’t a fascist IMHO, he lacks elements of that ideology and there isn’t the mass movement there really. I am not sure how much ideology Trump actually has. He may be far right (although a lot seems driven by self-interest and egomania) and have advisors and supporters who are maybe fascist, or close to it, but that doesn’t make him a fascist – nasty and dangerous in many was as he is. There are precedents for the non-fascist populist right.

It is not only bona fide fascists who pump up external and internal “threats”. The “War on Terror” etc?

If Trump disappoints some sections of his supporters the reaction could be the growth of a genuine fascist movement.

“Trump is no Hitler. Trump is, I have thought, a totally unprincipled person, who therefore doesn’t count as a fascist because a fascist or a National Socialist is a true believer in real big ideological weltanschauliche [worldview] principles over which they are prepared to die and to have everyone else die….
There’s a tremendous amount of organized, popular resistance and institutional resistance to the kinds of things that are going on….
We should definitely be looking for warning signs and, furthermore, they are very obvious…
These things don’t have to happen overnight; they can go step by step. The word “coup” might be somewhat misleading to the kind of evisceration of law, order, and protections that we may be seeing here….
Beginning with Nixon’s Southern Strategy, the Republican Party became the repository of institutional racism in the United States and of course that has not immunized it from any of the stuff that Trump has put forward.The centrality of its positions in the culture wars has positioned it in a way that would make the GOP more easily penetrable by forces far to the right of it. That’s what we are seeing”http://gothamist.com/2017/02/06/trump_bannon_german_history.php

I agree with the healthcare point. I remember asking my dad the day after the election if he thought there were two republican senators who would cross the floor to support Obamacare. He didn’t think so but the ground seems to shifting under them they’re getting an earful from there constituents and I’m not sure that ultimately they’ll have the courage to get rid of it. There’s all this bs recently about repeal and replace and the battle lines among the republican party seems to be those who won’t repeal until there’s a plan in place and those who want to repeal it now and replace it later. If they do I anticipate a major backlash. Anyway you can bet Trump’s comment about healthcare for everyone will come back to haunt him.